


Discourteous Callings

by Archerdiana, gaykagome



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, F/M, Horror, Modern Era, Morally Grey, Mystery, Romance, Surgery, kagome is a physicist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:00:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23380570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archerdiana/pseuds/Archerdiana, https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaykagome/pseuds/gaykagome
Summary: He keeps his promise. Time would not rip Kagome from his hands again. But equations must balance out. Inspired by Courtesy Call by Tally Mark.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/Sesshoumaru
Comments: 23
Kudos: 88





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Courtesy Call](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/575062) by Tally Mark. 



Despite the many candles and soft light from the wall sconces, the hospital chapel remained mostly in the dark. Sesshomaru was coming to associate the murky atmosphere with such places. Here the scent of decaying flowers overpowered the fumes of disinfectant that assailed him in every other part of the hospital. 

Just the day before, he had made his command on the Shikon no Tama in a church of the same faith. _Although that one had been much grander_ , he asserted, with a glance at the chapel’s trite furnishings. The coincidence remained a curious one, if meaningless.

He spotted Ms Higurashi, head bent in contemplation, and made his way to her. The bench of polished wood creaked under his weight as he sat.

The woman was looking ahead, eyes unfocused and a soft smile on her lips. "I just wanted a quiet moment to reflect. You know, to thank the powers that be," she said.

The use of the phrase had him freeze for a second. It echoed through that cavernous wound in his soul.

"Kagome's father died in a hospital, and I— well, when she was in surgery, I worried." She admitted.

He knew of the Higurashi man’s last days, trying treatment after treatment to extend his life. So he simply nodded, and let a minute of silence pass on his memory. Sirens, rushed steps, and loudspeakers were just a hum at the other side of the heavy wooden doors.

“Kagome is in excellent health,” he reassured her with the calm demeanor the woman had come to expect from their head doctor. “The observation period is over, and once you sign these papers, she is free to go home.”

Her face lit up. “Oh that’s great news, Doctor Takamura!” In a flash the woman had her arms around him, in the warmest hug he’d felt in centuries. His own hands remained stiffly at his side, having forgotten how to return affection.

When she let go, he presented her with the papers and imparted some aftercare instructions for Kagome. Sesshomaru evaded her thanks. Just hours ago he’d felt Kagome’s warm blood and soft tissue through his surgical gloves. He had come too close to the frailty of her mortal condition; he did not want to be reminded.

Ms Higurashi signed with a beaming smile that stayed on her lips all the way back to her daughter’s room. She informed Kagome, as well as her younger son and father, that they were ready to leave, and a flurry of activity ensued. Everyone packed up the various knick knacks that had quickly collected around Kagome during her stay; get-well cards, stuffed toys, etc.

Whatever worries the Higurashi matriarch harbored were hidden behind the love and patience she showed her family in their mundane tasks.

Sesshomaru stayed at the door. He’d never yet encountered a barrier as efficient at keeping him out as the warmth emanating from the room. Stepping in would be to trespass, to pollute the pure world that made up Kagome’s life then. A childhood he’d extended indirectly by removing the accursed Shikon no Tama from her body.

It was difficult to believe she was almost the same age as when they had first met. He remembered an enemy at his father’s grave; a strange woman, a nuisance. But he’d been blind then. Currently, she was just an innocent teenager. 

Time, ever his opponent, kept the woman who was his wife out of reach. It would be years until Kagome became her grown self, wonderful and complex. Until then he would stay at the edge of her life, forced to lurk in the shadows. There, his conscience did not weigh so heavily upon him; away from the warmth and love that he remembered so vividly, and would have again one day.

From that distance, Sesshomaru could carefully observe how the grafts of youkai tissue Kagome had been receiving all her life made her stronger, more endurant than any human. How the removal of the Shikon no Tama kept her away from the Bone Eater’s Well and the dangers of the past.

 _The miko is mine_ , he had commanded on the jewel, severing the grip of Time over her.

He walked away and pretended to be unaffected, even as his jaw tightened and breathing grew shallow, reflecting his urge to fight, if need be, to keep her at his side. Sesshomaru locked himself in his office, bent over his desk. The room, as always, felt cold, sterile and empty. For now, all he had to do was wait.


	2. To whom it may concern

“If you could run downstairs and grab me a nitro cold brew with three extra shots of espresso, the biggest size they have— don’t let them give you any shit about that much espresso; ask for Haru, she knows my order— that would be great.”

The exhausted sophomore shook his head at the graduate astrophysics student, her face buried in her laptop, with bedraggled hair and wired eyes. “Kagome, you’ve been hunched over your computer in this exact spot since I got here at 8 am. You should go home and get some sleep, there’s no way you’re going to crack this tonight.” 

The woman acknowledged the ridiculous suggestion with a low huff under her breath, “I say I will, so it’s going to happen.”

“The building is closing in an hour, we’re the only ones left! The cleaners are just waiting for you to leave.” 

At this Kagome perked up, “It’s 2 already?” She checked her phone and groaned at the 8 new text messages from her mother asking if she should save dinner for her. She stretched her shoulders, feeling her joints groan after hours of stillness. “Shit, I have to get home.”

Kagome slammed her laptop shut, shoving it and her external hard drive into the disastrously worn yellow backpack she’d used since she was fifteen. She raised her arms to the sky and stretched, her hoodie riding up and unknowingly revealing a straight, long healed scar along her torso to the boy. As she lowered her arms, her hand grazed the scar and she gave it an absentminded scratch while she popped the vertebrae in her neck. The bystander cleared his throat before speaking, “Can I walk you to the train station?” 

Kagome barely looked up as she re-tucked her university hoodie into her skirt and yanked down the sleeves from where they had been rolled up at her elbows. “No thanks Ryuu, but that coffee would be great!” She added a sweet smile at the end as she shoved her textbooks and some equipment he didn’t recognize into her bag.

“They’re closed.” He murmured, shifting uncomfortably.

“But the vending machines near the lecture halls downstairs have the canned stuff.” She rooted around her skirt pocket and pulled out a wad of bills and handed them to the undergrad. “Please.”

He took the sweaty bills with great effort not to wince at the grad student he admired so much despite her tunnel-vision tendencies, “You’re still going to work on this tonight?”

Kagome ran over to the room housing the university’s supercomputer and shut off the lights, “Yeah, I’ve got some more stuff left to pack up here but I’ll be on my way out as soon as you get back.”

“Sure.” Ryuu nodded and left.

“Thank you!” Kagome remembered to shout down the hall when he entered the elevator. The lab felt less lonely without him there.

She felt a little sorry for the kid for the many times she’d kept him at his post as night desk manager for the university’s physics building, as she was usually the last person there. But she was positive she was on the cusp of cracking the equation she’d been working on for months. She knew her zeal sometimes freaked out her fellow students, but she was used to feeling just a little bit different from her peers; for reasons easily explained and reasons not so easily explained.

Kagome had spent much of her life feeling like she was just on the edge of something… other. Like everyone walked lightly on the membrane separating their reality from other realities, while her feet sank into its softness, and tangled with every step. She never admitted her secret hopes to her colleagues, but part of her felt that not only could she one day understand that pliable membrane, but find a way to push through it.

Ever since she’d first learned about parallel universes in her preliminary science classes in high school, Kagome had been fascinated by quantum physics. These things were usually fodder for science fiction, what with time travel, alternate universes and the like, but the science behind these theories captivated her interest. Where others saw limitations in popular theories as impenetrable walls, Kagome saw only dense fog waiting to be pierced. 

As she finished packing up, Kagome felt the hair on her neck stand up, and the gut feeling she’d long grown accustomed to jerked her gaze toward the window overlooking the street. It was an overcast night, she couldn’t see much. Still she held her gaze, unsure if something was staring back, and almost willing the unknown to try her.

“Here you are.” Ryuu sighed as he reentered the lab, finding Kagome standing under one of the few fluorescent lights on with the rest of the lab cast in shadow. He handed Kagome her coffee and change after an uncomfortably long silence, during which she appeared to stare at nothing but her reflection in the window. Snapping out of her reverie, she turned back and flashed him a reflexive grin.

“Thanks.” She pursed her lips as she cracked open the lid of the can. “Are you about to lock up? Do you need a walk to the train station?”

Ryuu blushed imperceptibly. “I—” he cleared his throat. “I still live on campus, but if you want me to walk you to the train station I would be happy to—”

Kagome was already dashing to the elevators before he could stammer out the rest of his sentence. “I’m good, thanks though! Make sure you get back to your dorm safe, and have a good night!”

He stood in the weak light in the lab with his hand half up to wave her off. “Goodnight.”

Kagome leaned against the pockholed wood paneling of the elevator wall and breathed out a sigh of relief, flipping her bangs up out of her eyes. Ryuu would be fine, the dorms weren’t far.

After the cleaning crew closed and locked the building behind her, Kagome huddled into her scarf, bracing against the chilly night air. She was on sharp alert with her hand palming the weapon in her pocket, glancing over her shoulder the entire walk to the train station.

Half of her was focused on darting between street lights; the other half would not stop creating gruesome images of how people disappeared alone at night. Though, in each corner where she perceived a threat lurked only shadows and steam from the sewer grates. The feeling in her gut tightened and didn’t uncoil even while she was on the empty train, only slightly relaxing as she stepped off at the station near her house. 

As soon as the Higurashi shrine appeared in the distance, Kagome took off at a light jog, pausing only to finish her coffee, crushing it and tossing it into a nearby recycling bin. She bounded up the stairs and mentally kicked herself when she saw the light on in the kitchen and her mom sitting at the table nursing a cup of tea.

“Mom,” Kagome chided as she slid the door open. “I told you you don’t have to wait up for me.” Ms. Higurashi visibly unwound as her daughter stepped into the kitchen, shutting the locking the door behind her.

She tsked lovingly and approached to help Kagome remove her scarves and backpack. “You know me, I can’t sleep when you’re out so late. Plus, with all those poor missing people in the area lately, there’s no way I would have been able to relax.”

Kagome tossed her scarf haphazardly onto the coat rack, turning so she wouldn’t have to look her mom in the eye. “I have my pocketknife, and I have all that training from grandpa. I’m being safe, I promise.” She turned back to her mother just as she was bringing out a tin foil covered plate from the fridge. Her annoyance melted as her mom unwrapped it and placed the leftovers into the microwave.

“Yes, I’m sure grandpa’s positively medieval miko training would come in handy if some sicko tried to take you.” Ms. Higurashi chuckled while Kagome shrugged noncommittally.

The summers her grandpa spent drilling old spiritual training into Kagome’s brain were so deliriously boring that she had actually wished she had taken summer tutoring courses with her friends. 

Kagome’s mom poured out the rest of her tea in the sink and tightened her robe, “I know you’re an adult, and you need space to conduct your work. But I’m your mother, and you're my baby. I’m always going to worry.” She yawned. “But now that you’re home, I’m going to bed. Will you be up much longer?”

“No, I’m just gonna eat and go to bed.” Kagome lied breezily, taking the food out of the microwave before the timer even reached zero. 

With a kiss on her cheek, Ms. Higurashi retired to her room. Kagome silently unlocked and slipped out of the door again with her backpack and dinner in hand. She tiptoed through the darkness of the shrine courtyard, using Goshinboku as a marker to guide her to the family’s dilapidated wellhouse tucked in a shrouded corner. The chill running down her spine had only eased once inside the shrine’s premises, with her tree in sight.

When Kagome had asked to use the ancient wellhouse as a makeshift lab, her grandpa and mother were all too happy to relinquish it; they had grown tired of tripping over the web of cords and gadgets in the living room. Soon the shed became informally off-limits to the other members of Higurashi family, solely based on their fear of stumbling over the delicate equipment which lay strewn around the wellhouse floor. 

Kagome stepped around back and tried to ignite the small generator as quietly as possible. Once the gas powered engine rumbled to life, she disappeared between the wellhouse’s wooden doors.

Surrounding the barren well was a veritable hoarder’s nest of hardware, computer viscera intermixed with complicated machinery either hand built or “borrowed” from the university. With the power on, these machines whirred to life, filling the ancient wooden shed with technicolor lights and mechanical clicks. 

Kagome yanked her laptop out of her backpack as she flopped into her worn desk chair. She took her place in front of the desk she’d hauled down the wellhouse stairs years ago. She swept aside some old wadded up WacDonald’s wrappers to make room for her laptop. 

She opened up the data log and clinched her jaw. She reminded herself to blink when her eyesight blurred, then her fingers pounded the keyboard. She typed in the margins, “No change in _Y_ levels in the well since last month. Readings remain stable. Must isolate variables which subject readings to change.” Running her chipped nail polish fingernails through her hair along her scalp, Kagome whirled around and rested her elbows on her knees. She stared through squinted eyelids at the aggressively unreadable well of a bygone era. 

Kagome had considered the idea that she may be crazy more than once to obsess over this shitty little well. On the surface, her research related very closely to her official work with the university on the theoretical physics of wormholes, but she couldn’t tell anyone how fixated she had become on the nondescript, derelict well in her backyard. A well that had never shown signs of anything noteworthy regarding earthly or quantum physics, but a well that Kagome always came back to. Her theory that the well was a spot of gravitational anomaly remained her unofficial thesis, but it was a flimsy supposition at best.

“What am I missing?” Kagome growled, puncturing the frustrating silence by rocking back on her squeaky-backed chair. The data pointed to a series of neverending dead ends, and the objective scientist in her head had told Kagome that this was fruitless. But as much as Kagome wanted to sometimes, she couldn’t ignore the pulse of energy, that feeling in her gut, that there was something special here.

Kagome knew that following her gut led her to unusual places. She was used to feeling different from her peers. While her girl friends went to tutoring then the mall by day, Kagome spent her teenage summers practicing how to exorcise youkai with her cantankerous grandpa. Not that they ever found any youkai, or that his ramblings were ever very coherent, but she’d learned the traditional family ways regardless. Then she’d started to show signs of other differences from her friends, ones that made her whole family take notice.

Kagome had come to value her brain as one of her greatest assets;but it just didn’t work the way it needed to sometimes. Her tendency to fixate took her far in her work, but became a hindrance when everything else besides for her singular focus slipped through the cracks. She’d learned to deal with her brain’s quirks and oddities, but part of Kagome wondered if the effort she poured into this well was simply collecting at the bottom like the rest of the dirt down there. 

Kagome considered this while she chewed on her dinner, which had grown cold once more. Finally, she was compelled to stand and walked over to the well’s lip. She gazed into its inky blackness like if she squinted her eyes just right, she could find some answers. 

The Bone Eater’s well, her grandpa claimed they used to call it in the olden days. She always thought that name was pretty stupid, since she’d found the bones of rats Buyo had dismembered down there many times, and _she’d_ been the one that had to dispose of them. 

Kagome didn’t bother to light her way as her sneaker clad foot found the top rung of the ladder she’d long ago thrown over the side of the well. She snaked down into the black to the familiar cold earth after a few seconds of descent. Releasing the ladder, Kagome sank to sit in the dirt and leaned her head against the side of the well. Her eyes slid closed. 

_Send me a sign_ , she thought, not daring to speak it out loud. She dug chewed-down fingernails into the dirt and tried to sense anything to belie the hidden secrets of this well. She paused and waited for a sign from anything—the well, “the powers that be” as her mother always said, God, the kami, a ghost, whatever. 

Nothing but the smell of mold, wood rot, and rat bones. 

With disappointment, Kagome opened and rolled her eyes skyward. Her gaze met only the wood ceiling of the wellhouse, illuminated by a single naked lightbulb she’d rigged years ago. She allowed herself to imagine for a moment what the people of old would have seen.

If they sat in the well as she did and stared up at the stars, would they too have wondered about the infinite possibilities up there? At the bottom of the eons old well, Kagome felt for a moment that she knew precious little more about her universe than her ancestors did. 

She hoisted herself out of the well again, and taking her laptop in her grasp, Kagome dragged her bag onto her shoulder with herculean effort. The clock struck 4 in the morning as she slid open the doors of the wellhouse. She shut down the generator in the back, determined to work on her lab report due later that week in her room. Sleep would elude her after so much caffeine anyway.

Kagome came to a sudden halt in the courtyard as she felt that tug in her chest, that niggling feeling that commanded her attention. Blood pulsed painfully under the skin of the long healed scar on her side. Her body pivoted as if strung along by an invisible cord to face the stairs leading down the street, away from the shrine and away from the safety of her house.

Her brows knit suspiciously and her ears prickled, dissecting the silence. They picked up nothing besides the occasional passing car; unsurprising this late at night. All was quiet on the street. Her scar itched like crazy.

Kagome huffed and turned away from the street and away from the house. Her aching muscles protested, but she was on too high alert to focus on her lab report. She once again retreated to the wellhouse, only this time she emerged with the old bow and arrow her grandpa had made her practice with as a teen. She couldn’t explain it, but the bow and arrows made her feel a little more secure. 

“Just blow off some steam.” She murmured to herself before retreating further into the shadows of the Higurashi shrine. Kagome used her phone’s flashlight to lead her to an overgrown path hidden far behind the house, where a makeshift target was set up that had stood unmoved for a decade. 

The pain of recallousing her fingers was almost soothing as Kagome practiced her girlhood training exercise. The consistent draw, aim, release, and thunk of the arrows flying from her bow lulled her brain into a restful rhythm.

It was simply physics. She knew how much power to use to pull back the string, taut with potential energy; understood how kinetic energy would only need to be channeled with her body to reach its prime target. The rules of the universe were fickle at the scales with which she normally grappled with them, but in this old habit, they were straightforward, accommodating, courteous. The tedious practice helped break up the tension coiled in her stomach calming her manic thoughts. 

The sun was close to rising when it came to her. “I’m going about the equation all wrong.” She realized, just as her last arrow hit the target. It was all wrong. The variables did not correlate as she’d once thought; she’d lost sight of the simplest laws of physics. She’d been working the second half based on a premise she’d just noticed wasn’t totally sound. If she could...could— _dammit_ , she lost her train of thought, the itch on her side too strong. 

Kagome’s hand hovered over the mark on her ribs. She could scratch herself like a mad dog, but she knew it would offer no relief. It was not the itch of tough scar tissue, of dry skin on hot mornings. Underneath her old wound she felt a gaping hole, a claw reaching to her innards and ripping her apart.

She placed her palm over the scar, daintily. Her chest expanded with each deep breath she took, trying to will away the tenderness. _This is getting out of hand_ , she thought as she pressed her fingers into the tissue to abate some of its phantom pain. The annoying scar from her minor surgery as a teen continued to pester Kagome with its hypersensitivity. She knew it was mostly psychosomatic. Kagome had never had another tumor since, and her fluke condition was barely a line in her medical record worth mentioning to all other doctors she’d seen. 

She set her teeth and straightened. It was like her equation, _back to the basics_. Only the doctor who had found the tumor in the first place would know anything about her condition, so she would have to go to him for answers...but it had been, hell, ten or so years since she’d seen the guy she reckoned.

 _Did he still even practice in Tokyo?_ Kagome pondered, fingernail tracing the line of her scar. _Wait, Souta had a check-up with him a while back, didn’t he? What’s his name again? Dr. Tama...Ta_ _—_ _Takamura! Right!_ Kagome remembered and immediately took out her phone, throwing his name into a search engine to find the address of his practice.

“I’ll go see Dr. Takamura tomorrow. And he will reassure me there’s no reason to worry about this scar. I’m alright.” Her voice trembled even against the silence of dawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment and tell us what you think! :)
> 
> Authors can be found on tumblr as:  
> https://gaykagome.tumblr.com/  
> https://archerdiana.tumblr.com/


	3. God, gods, or something else

Dr. Takamura’s waiting room was not bad. The magazines were only a little outdated, the chairs were comfortable and the decoration ran to soothing more than gaudy, despite him being a pediatrician. She was sure the toys in the pen at the corner were normally cute, instead of creepy in the dim light, with only flashes from car headlights occasionally casting long shadows over the room.

His receptionist kept glancing at Kagome from the corner of her eye. “Dr. Takamura doesn’t receive patients without an appointment,” she repeated once more, her brow creased with worry. “Besides, the doctor has been at the conference downtown all day. This might not be the best time,” she reasoned.

“I just need to ask him a few quick questions and then I’ll be out of your hair,” Kagome waved off. Her foot tapped on the floor loudly as she watched the office door, making the receptionist lips flatten into an annoyed line. “I’ll be done before he reaches the elevator.” The smile felt fake and tight on her lips.

Her plan to see the doctor was a disaster so far. She had overslept that morning. At noon, with sleepy eyes, she’d resolved to cut away the mistaken bits in her equation. Only until late afternoon had the pain from her own carved flesh on her side reminded Kagome of her plan. 

She had called Takamura’s practice to get an appointment, but there were no spots available until next month; her maddening itch couldn’t wait that long. Naturally, Kagome set out for his office anyway, in hopes of getting at least five minutes to ask the guy about her case.

The sound of steps from the hallway jolted her from her thoughts. The receptionist met her eyes and shook her head. Kagome bolted to her feet and ran out before the woman could stop her.

“Dr. Takamura!” She called while stumbling into the hallway.

The man stopped in his tracks a few feet away from her, understandably shaken. He took a tentative step forward with evident confusion. He still kept the long silver hair that Kagome remembered from when she was a kid; she’d conveniently forgotten that he was young for a pediatrician, and deliciously handsome.

“Sorry. Ah, I’m Higurashi Kagome. I used to be your patient, like, ten years ago,” she divulged. “Can I ask you some questions?”

He didn’t seem to notice how he tilted his head to the side as he considered her. “Yes,” he agreed, softly. “May I retrieve something from my office first?” he asked, gesturing at the computer in his hand and the door to his office behind her.

“Oh! Sure. Yeah, go ahead.” Kagome said, moving aside.

Takamura moved past her and went inside, leaving the door ajar.

She was left with the receptionist in a long stretch of awkward silence.

“He’s been there a while,” Kagome noted. “Should I go get him?”

The receptionist shrugged. “No. But you’re going to anyways,” she said while moving to collect her stuff. “I have to catch the train.” 

The receptionist left, turning off the light as she did so. Kagome’s eyes fluttered around the gloom before she made up her mind to go into Takamura’s office.

She cleared her throat. “Doctor, are you almost done?” She said, peeking in.

“Please, call me Sesshomaru,” he mumbled, bent over his desk while he leafed through a messy collection of pages. He sighed, straightened. “I don't believe your file is here,” he admitted.

Sesshomaru raised his head to meet her gaze and Kagome noticed eyeglasses perched low on the bridge of his nose. It was cute and incongruous at the same time, like they didn’t fit his ethereal looks. She had a strange urge to reach out and tug the glasses away from his serene face. _What’s with me today?_

“I keep older records at a storage facility. ” Sesshomaru paused to examine a clock hanging somewhere behind her on a wall. Kagome’s eyes couldn’t help but follow the elegant curve of his neck, down to the undone button of his shirt. She could almost see the displeased growl form in his chest before he said, “It will be closed by the time we get there.”

“Oh.” She fumbled for something to say. “Maybe I could go get it tomorrow from the storage. Just give me the address and I’ll figure it out. Or I could make an appointment and come back? I think your receptionist said there was an opening five weeks from now,” Kagome proposed, trying not to sound too desperate.

He caught on to her urgency. _“_ Is there a reason for your concern?” He leaned forward, as if straining to deduce the direction of her illogical prodding.

Kagome shook her head. “I was fine at my last check up. I’m just curious,” she tried to sound disinterested but couldn’t repress the urge to cross her arms and keep the scar covered. “I know it was a while ago but, well, I don’t know a lot about the tumor I had. I know it was benign, but it was also rather big wasn’t it? Isn’t that suspicious?”

“Suspicious?” Sesshomaru repeated, his deep tone belieing no particular emotion.

"Could it have been cancer? Or right now, do I have a higher risk of getting it?” She asked, not caring if she sounded stupid.

He made the slightest of sounds from the back of his throat. “I believe I remember your case now. It was a benign tumor underneath the eighth rib.”

“Yes, that’s it!” She almost shouted.

He nodded, once again in thought. “Then there is a possibility I have the file at home. Benign tumors have become my field of study,” he said, tilting his chin to the wall behind him. She hadn’t noticed until then that the abundance of framed titles and recognitions were in fact related to the subject.

“That’s great news!” She said, joy pouring into her words.

“I can hand them to you tomorrow, if you please.”

Kagome squared her shoulders. “Listen, I know it’s late and I don’t want to inconvenience you, but could we go and get it now? I’ll sleep much better if I can just see that file.”

Unsurprisingly, Dr. Takamura didn’t seem too keen on inviting her to his home. He had one hand poised over the door handle while he considered her. “It’s late,” he said at last. “A dangerous time to be out.”

Kagome grinned, giddy and satisfied. “Don’t worry, I’ll walk you home.”

  
  
  


There was a light drizzle falling over the streets; lighter than full-fledged rain, but constant enough to be annoying. Sesshomaru walked fast —long legs, she noticed— and avoided the crowded streets, leading them through quiet back streets. It had been a while since she’d felt such silence in the city. Without the buzz of people, phones, and traffic, she could make out his breathing almost synching up with hers. They were alone in his deserted version of the city: one of quiet narrow paths, outside the reach of the metropolitan chaos.

The alley was crowded with small bars, just opening up for the night. Kagome watched from behind as neon signs lit Sesshomaru's hair bright pink and electric blue. He would glance at her every so often; his eyes would flitter about her face, and he’d release a breath.

 _Maybe I overstepped,_ Kagome reasoned. “I really appreciate you taking the time for this, Doctor.”

“Sesshomaru,” he insisted.

“Ah, then thank you, Sesshomaru.” She felt like smiling at the odd name.

He stopped. With a nod to the street at his left, he declared, “It’s here.”

It was the third building on the block. The facade was narrow and nondescript, covered mostly by the heavy gate Sesshomaru held open for her.

The lights inside turned on automatically, one by one. It was one of those modern houses with an open plan, sparsely furnished on the verge of looking soulless. The plants were a nice touch though; there were pots overflowing with foliage on every possible corner. The glass doors at the back showed a similarly vibrant garden.

“I will look through my records.” Sesshomaru announced, already turning on his heel and towards the staircase. 

Kagome was too late to ask him if she should follow or wait, so she stayed behind. She sat uncomfortably on a kitchen stool, feeling like she was tarnishing the display of a furniture store. 

Sesshomaru returned with a crisp folder in hand. In a seamless movement he sat next to her and spread the pages on the counter. He absently rolled up his sleeves while he read the page, squinting slightly. As Kagome watched him just being unguarded and relaxed, a strange placidness came over her too. Her anxiety over the scar felt out of place and surreal in that quiet moment; all her anxieties, actually.

Another low groan left Sesshomaru’s throat. “This is the ultrasound we did before the surgery. This area is the tumor,” he pointed at a section of the grainy image that didn’t look much different from the rest, but Kagome nodded.

He flipped a few more pages, explaining the analysis done to determine that it was not a cancerous tumor, the notes before and after the operation, and subsequent tests to confirm it hadn’t grown back. They reached the last page and Kagome sighed. Despite the good news, the apprehension in her chest remained there.

She could feel Sesshomaru’s attention focused on her, although he was looking at the page in front of them. She hadn’t noticed their shoulders were touching.

“You are not appeased,” he noted.

Kagome grimaced. “No. I mean, I’m glad I’m not sick! I just want things to make sense.” She rubbed the scar through her clothing. “I feel empty,” she admitted. “I bury myself in problems, and equations, and machines. But even when I’m busy I’ll get an itch right here.” she patted the side of her ribcage. “The itch becomes a pain, and I’m reminded that I'm still empty and alone, and I just feel like there has to be a reason behind all of it.” She shrugged. _Why on earth did I say that?_

The stoic doctor hardly seemed the kind to have a touchy chat with his former patients. But instead of pulling away, he walked to the opposite side of the counter and studied her face. “If the resolve I’ve seen so far is any indication, you will find your reason, Higurashi Kagome,” he concluded.

The beginnings of laughter tugged at the corners of her lips. “I can be rather stubborn.” She admitted.

He hummed from low in his throat, contemplating while he retrieved two whiskey tumblers from the cabinet. “Perseverance is an admirable trait, you should be proud of it. I find there’s less of it every day,” he said.

Kagome snorted. “It’s not that great when it makes me fixate on unattainable goals until late in the night.” She leaned forward and rested her chin in her hand. Those all-nighters seemed a million miles away. She felt entirely present in that moment, from the way the fabric of her skirt rested against her legs, to the warmth that would flood her face everytime Sesshomaru looked at her. And it was nice to feel whole.

He was saying something.

“Do you drink?” He asked, already getting ice balls for each.

“Whiskey?” Kagome asked. “I can’t, I have to walk home.”

Sesshomaru paused, crystal bottle in hand. “I called you a cab. It should be here soon.”

She hesitated. “You shouldn’t have troubled yourself.”

“The cab is on me, since you kindly walked me home.” Kagome didn’t miss the taunting raise of his eyebrow as he said it. He poured himself a short drink and instead offered her a water bottle. She watched with secret envy as condensation formed on his glass.

“Is it good?” She asked, distracted.

Sesshomaru took his time in stirring the liquor around, and twice as much in sampling it. “Dry,” he resolved.

Kagome huffed and took a long sip of water. “You could ask me for a drink next time.”

A warm expression bloomed on his face, slow and small. “I will,” he declared, and over his phone so she could write down her number.

 _My mother is going to faint if she finds out_ , Kagome worried. She gulped down the knot at her throat and pressed _Save_ on her contact information. She most decidedly ignored how their fingers brushed for a second when she returned the phone to him.

Sesshomaru held the cellphone as if it were about to crumble in his hands, and put it away with exceeding delicacy. “Your cab is outside,” He announced, and gestured for her to follow.

Kagome walked behind him barely aware of the steps she took. All the blood was pumped to her head; she couldn’t decide if she was embarrassed or relieved about her bold invitation. She slipped on her shoes at the entrance while avoiding his gaze.

“Right,” she said with a strained voice. “Thank you for answering my questions. Good night!”

He opened the door of the cab pulled into the curb. “Don’t stay up for unattainable goals,” Sesshomaru said as farewell.

“Just for tonight,” she called over her shoulder, waved, and got inside the cab.

She and the driver exchanged greetings, and once he sped away she slumped against the seat. “It’s a crazy world, isn’t it?” Kagome wondered out loud.

“So it is, so it is,” Replied the driver in a cordial tone. “Five more people are missing today! What a world!” He rambled on.

Kagome straightened up and cleared her throat. The dazing cloud she’d been floating on had turned to a cold downpour. “That’s terrible,” she acknowledged. The darkness around the car felt like an oppressing weight, one she wished she could pierce through and figure out.

  
  
  


Next day Kagome woke up with the sunrise, feeling well rested. _Maybe there is something to sleeping early,_ she admitted to herself. She scurried out of the quiet home, where everyone was asleep still, and went to check on her equipment at the wellhouse.

The early morning cast a disfavorable shadow over her hideout. The dusty wires and crumpled papers were displeasing to her now. She grabbed a rag and set out to tidy and clean whatever she could manage before having to leave for class. 

She wiped the equipment and ripped away old notes she had pinned all over. _These are wrong, these are way off,_ she thought as she read them over. She paused to read a little scrap of paper with annotations on _Y_ levels. She’d noticed a small bump that reappeared constantly in her readings. A pattern. 

She shifted from foot to foot. She could finish cleaning, or go to the lab early and work on that. _It’s promising_ , she told herself as she left the mess in the wellhouse for another day and hurried to get her things. 

She scrambled for her backpack, her train pass, and an apple to eat later.

“Kagome!” her mother called from the laundry room, “You’re up early!”

She peeked in. “Hi Mom! Yeah, I was going over some notes, and I think I’m making progress. It’s exciting!” She said.

Her mom laughed. “Alright then, good luck!” She said, waving her away.

Kagome turned to leave, then stopped mid step. “I’ll probably be late today again,” She admitted.

“It’s alright.” Her mom said behind her.

The subway was fuller at that time in the morning, but Kagome didn’t mind. She half-saw the tunnels and stations as they sped past them, and thought about the segments she still had to write in her report, the parts she needed to fix. Once every so often, she would indulge herself and remember Sesshomaru’s very golden eyes.

Once at the campus, she kept the thoughts of golden eyes at bay and focused on finishing her report. It was one of her most productive days. By seven pm she was somewhat satisfied with her progress, except for a test she needed to rerun at the lab.

“Hey Ryuu!” she greeted while setting her laptop on the desk. “I’m back to torture you.” When there was no answer, Kagome looked up to find a guy with frosted tips wearing the uniform of the lab manager. Definitely not Ryuu.

“Good evening,” he said. “I’ll be covering up for Kobayashi today. My name is Saito, please let me know if you need help.”

“Oh, sorry about that; I didn’t see you. Thank you, Saito. I’m Higurashi Kagome, from the graduate program.” She beamed at him.

A buzzing from her pocket startled her. Kagome pulled out her phone to find a text from an unknown number. It was safe to assume it was Sesshomaru’s, since it read “We have a drink pending.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, as always we're extremely grateful for any feedback!


	4. The powers that be

“Kagome? I thought you said you wouldn’t be back until late.” Ms. Higurashi balked, holding the broom mid-sweep at the top of the shrine’s stairs. “Are you in for the night?”

Kagome hoped the glow from the porchlight behind her mother hid any blush that would give her away. She ascended to the top of the stairs before she answered so she didn’t feel so small under her mother’s gaze, “Actually, I’m just popping by. I’m going back out.” 

The buzz of the phone in her skirt pocket felt like a seizing limb against her thigh. She breezed past her mother, praying there would be no follow up questions.

Ms. Higurashi returned to sweeping and gave Kagome a withering gaze, “Back to the lab so late? And on a Friday? Oh, Kagome...”

Kagome threw a noncommittal sound over her shoulder as she slid open the kitchen doors and closed them behind her. She bounded up the stairs, ignoring Souta and her grandpa in the living room playing a game of chess. 

Throwing herself into her room, Kagome let out a shaky breath and discarded her backpack. She marched to her closet and stood in front of it like a general strategizing battle plans.

The jitters in her stomach weren’t from nervousness. Quite the contrary, Kagome was all but chomping at the bit to see Sesshomaru. He’d hung around her brain like a quiet spector all day, even when she fell into the rhythm of her work. Quite an impressive feat after just meeting for the first time, she wagered. Well. Meeting _again_. 

No, he didn’t make her nervous. But the way he had gazed at her from across his kitchen counter the night before had made something in her want to bow up for battle. Her tongue ached to feel how satisfying the conquest would be; or maybe to surrender. Kagome burned to explore this new discovery meticulously and _thoroughly_. 

That’s partly why Kagome had come home before going to meet up with him. She was used to fitting her dates around her life, showing up for dinner, drinks, or a hookup as is.

But reading the text “ _We have a drink pending_ ” sent a curl in her belly and commanded her attention. 

“Yes we do :)” She had responded as she left the physics building. 

“ _Are you free now?_ ” The message glowed blue.

 _Yes_ , she’d started to type as she clocked her reflection in the window of the physics building. She wore a sweatshirt, pleated skirt and beat up boots; nothing out of the ordinary. Strands of black hair, though up in a bun held in place by a much chewed on pencil, fell in haphazard strands around her face. She wasn’t ashamed of how she looked, but suddenly, the thought of dressing up a little sounded very appealing.

“How does 8:30 sound?” She’d shot back. “I know a place with great cocktails. I’ll send you the address and meet you there?” 

“ _Perfect. See you then._ ” 

She didn’t usually have to deal with her family when it came to dates, though; they just didn’t come up unless they got serious. She especially hadn’t considered how she would dodge questions when she was going out with her ex-pediatrician and Souta’s current primary care physician. Her mom would absolutely flip if she found out. 

_Focus_ . She rifled through various skirts, shirts, dresses, until she hit the back of her closet. She spotted a flash of green in the back corner of her closet on top of a stack of blue: her middle school uniform and high school uniform, respectively. _Holy shit, why do I still even have those_? She would definitely need to do a deep cleaning dive someday.

After quickly donning more date appropriate clothes, she brushed out her hair and let it fall in loose curls down her back. She even put on a pair of blue jewel earrings her friends always said brought out her eyes. The pencil in her hair exchanged for a tube of lip gloss and she was ready to go. 

Before exiting her room, she snatched up her knife poking out of the pocket of her day skirt crumpled on the floor and stuffed it in her pocket. 

_Damn it_. She internally groaned when she descended the stairs and found Souta doing his homework at the kitchen table while Grandpa grumbled to himself from the living room. Their mom stood behind Souta, facing the stove on the far wall, making dinner. 

Kagome locked eyes with Souta. 

He tilted his head at her makeup and outfit. 

She raised her brows and pressed her lips in a hard line at him warningly; she shook her head, flashing her eyes at their mom’s back. 

The high school senior rolled his eyes, gave her an exaggerated nod, and a sarcastic “ok” finger sign.

“See ya, Mom. Souta.” Kagome said once she had her hand on the door. 

Ms. Higurashi, still turned toward the stove, tightened her jaw. “Kagome, let Souta come and walk you home from the lab later tonight. Souta doesn’t mind, right?”

Souta maintained eye contact with his sister, who still had one foot in the house. She cocked her head threateningly. He rested his chin on his palm boyishly. “Awfully dressed up for the lab, aren’t ya sis?”

“Eat glass, brat.” She whispered back, all prayer of escaping her mother’s attention gone. 

“ _Hey_.” Mis. Higurashi admonished her as she turned from the stove. Whatever she was about to say was quickly shelved when she saw Kagome, sans backpack and with a purse. She schooled her features. “You look nice, sweetie. Going out?” 

“Uh...yeah.” Kagome replied. “Just with some friends.”

“Okay. Have fun. But don’t walk home from the train station alone, alright? For my sake. Text your brother if you need to.” Ms. Higurashi returned to the stove, and suddenly Kagome felt silly for being anxious. Her mother wasn’t one to pry. 

Once her mother had turned her back, Kagome threw one last middle finger at Souta. Though he threw one right back, it was empty of venom. She grinned as she closed the kitchen doors, thoughts already miles away.

* * *

When Kagome arrived at 8:45, the lively bar was full of patrons; mostly young professionals, but the eve of the weekend seemed to stir the crowd into a rowdier frenzy than usual. Kagome glided inside easily, and found a place at the bar between two tightly meshed groups of twenty-somethings, already on their way to drunk.

As Kagome pressed send on her text to Sesshomaru letting him know of her arrival, the bartender made eye contact. She leaned in to order a shot, as she usually did before a date, but paused. She was already electrified. Her skin flushed in anticipation, and the crowd’s vivacity fed the thrumming in her head. She waved him away with a smile before her phone buzzed in her fingers. Just an email. 

She fluffed her hair and drummed her fingers on the counter. She scanned the fluid crowd for that head of silver hair. Then she did it again. She returned her gaze to her phone where she languidly played a mindless game. 

Kagome perked up when fingers rested on the skin of her exposed shoulder and a warm chest pressed against her other shoulder. She tilted her head with a greeting smile ready, but found a face she didn’t recognize, with cold green eyes instead of golden. 

She jerked back from the stranger, ready to tell him to back away. But the face went from flirtatious familiarity to confusion, then to apologetic.

“Oh, sorry!” He shouted over the noise, taking a step back and throwing up his hands. “I thought you were my girlfriend, I’m really sorry.”

Kagome melted and tossed her hand up, attention already drawn back to her phone. “It’s fine.” 

The man backed away sheepishly. When he turned to disappear back into the crowd, he ran into a pillar clad in a crisp white button down holding a suit jacket over one arm. Sesshomaru’s hair flowed unencumbered by a hair tie.

Kagome twisted eagerly on the stool to greet Sesshomaru, who looked out of place in the throng of revelers, but he wasn’t looking at her. He gazed down at the man who had bounced off of him like a rubber band with a blank, almost disinterested look. Kagome swore she could sense a little tension in his brow, but it could have just been the lighting. 

“Oops, ‘scuse me.” The poor guy muttered, waiting for Sesshomaru to move so he could scoot past. Sesshomaru just continued to look down at him like a magnifying glass does an ant on the sidewalk. After a second of hesitation, the stranger just squeezed between Sesshomaru and another group of people crowded at one of the bar tables. 

His eyes flitted to her. She didn’t notice his chest didn’t rise for his next breath.

Kagome tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear and hopped down from her stool, “Hi.”

“Hello again, Kagome.” He breathed out, the picture of serenity. 

She really liked the way he said her name. Like it was porcelain. In general, she liked the way he spoke. She didn’t see him as a man to stumble over his words, each word punctuated with intentionality. 

“Wanna go find a seat? There’s a set of tables back there.” She pointed to a table that sat like an island in a choppy sea of people. 

“You go claim a spot. I will get our drinks. What would you like?” Sesshomaru replied after pursing his lips at the crowd. 

Kagome felt her lips pull up in a smile at his forwardness; she didn’t like to mess around either. She threw a devilish glance up at him. “Surprise me.” 

His replying smirk was playful, “As you wish.” 

Kagome took off into the crowd, an explorer with a machete hacking through the weeds. Once seated she watched Sesshomaru standing at the bar, and admired his regal nose and dignified posture. His presence at the bar cut through the crowd around him. Planets orbiting the Sun. 

Her phone buzzed. She glanced at it; annoyed. It was another email from her University’s automated system; something about a closure of some buildings for the weekend. She groaned and marked the email as read, tired of the deluge of notifications from the university’s trigger happy system. 

Sesshomaru arrived and sat across from her. One elegant arm reached across the small table and set down her drink, the other setting down his whiskey on the stained coaster. 

“I love daiquiris, good choice.” Kagome sipped, appreciatively.

“I strive to make choices which yield optimal results.” He said casually, holding his drink up to his chin. He exuded a particularly good humor tonight, Kagome noticed.

She smirked, loading her retort that she remembered his odd turns of phrase from when she was younger. _Don’t mention that, that would be weird_. So, she picked the next thing she could think to say, “Don’t we all?” 

He nodded in concession. He paused for a moment and took his time mulling over his words. _He’s a careful guy, isn’t he_? 

“...but _you_ succeed.” She finished the thought, not as a question. 

His eyes sparkled and she took that as a _yes, she was right_. 

She suddenly felt that the tiny bar table created too wide a chasm between them; she felt calmed yet positively alight with the energy in her veins. But she itched to be closer. She realized distantly that her scar burned with pleasant heat. 

Kagome smirked around the lip of her glass before she took another sip, “So, what’s your secret to success? To yielding optimal results?”

“I do not devote myself to, what was it you called it? Unattainable goals?”

“Ah.” She nodded. “I took your advice actually. I left those goals to sit for a while.”

Sesshomaru placed both elbows on the table, taking up most of the surface, “That is good.”

Kagome slid her gaze back to him from where she was half turned away. She watched the muscles in his throat move as the whiskey went down his throat. “I plan on doing the same tonight.” 

She couldn’t be sure, but Kagome thought she saw a blush creep up under Sesshomaru’s flat, white collar. His pupils dilated almost imperceptibly, and his finger stopped its ministrations on the wet glass. 

She set down her glass, “My university’s lab is closed tonight.” She indicated her phone. “Not the best for unattainable goal chasing.” 

Sesshomaru actually chuckled, “Somehow I doubt that has ever stopped you before.”

“Fair.” She pictured her wellhouse, ready and wanting, back at the shrine for her to spend the night tinkering away until the dawn. 

The thought was quickly banished when an inattentive passerby knocked into Sesshomaru’s shoulder, spilling the whiskey all over the already sticky table. 

Sesshomaru and Kagome pushed back their chairs and stood; Kagome grabbed napkins from a nearby table while Sesshomaru saved Kagome’s purse. When a waitress finally came over and took over the clean up, Kagome stood shoulder to shoulder with Sesshomaru. She barely resisted the urge to curl her arm around his and rest into his side. 

Sesshomaru glanced around at the other patrons, for the first time looking visibly tense. The realization hit her like she just locked an equation into place, that the bar she’d taken them too was totally not their vibe. 

When she looked to the now totally soaked chair where she had placed her purse, she felt a tap on her shoulder. Sesshomaru handed her her purse, gazing down at her with fondness bordering on doting. The chivalry made Kagome’s stomach coil and tug her until she stood nearly flush against him.

“Do you want to go somewhere quieter? I’ll buy your next drink.” Not ignoring her impulse to wrap herself around him like she had before, she snaked her arm under his and placed her own hand on top of his forearm. 

“Yes.” When he placed his other hand on top of Kagome’s resting on his forearm, his touch was feather light. _Careful guy, for sure._ “But keep your purse tight; your buying this one a drink is unacceptable.”

“Unacceptable? Could you forget so quickly how stubborn I can be?” She teased. She watched the warm lighting of the bar fade from Sesshomaru’s face as they exited, replaced with the cool electricity of the streetlights. The cool blue light combined with his sharp features cast vivid shadows across his face.

“No. I could not.” He murmured. Then his eyes warmed and he led them down the sidewalk away from the din of the bar. 

They walked in content silence. Kagome was happy to let Sesshomaru take the lead; she found learning how to be with him thrilling. He was already so different from her usual dates. 

“How was your day?” she asked after the third block. Such a cliche first date question, but she genuinely wanted to know. 

“Mundane. To tell you the truth, Kagome, I hoped you would be free to meet tonight. My day has been significantly brighter.” He said smoothly, gently stopping her at an intersection. There weren’t many cars around, but he held them a couple yards back from the curb.

“I guess in the medical field a mundane day is a good one.” She sighed. The light changed and they started walking again. “You said your specialty is benign tumors?”

“Yes.”

“Can I ask: why benign tumors?” She quickly added, “It’s just, it would seem to me like there would be more funds in malignant tumor research.”

Sesshomaru shrugged, “Anomalies, even without teeth, are worthy of study. They exist simply to be.” He thought for a moment, long enough that Kagome wondered if her question had offended him. “They...defy. Possess the potential to do great harm, yet they do not. Though for that potential they often must be destroyed.”

“Wow, I didn’t think about it that deeply. But that’s weirdly...reverent.” 

“Reverent.” He murmured softly. “I suppose so.” 

Another intersection. Kagome felt shiver down her spine, and checked over her shoulder. But it was just someone leaving a building they just passed and walking the other way. She didn’t feel afraid though, not with Sesshomaru. She didn’t know if he could fight or anything, but he didn’t seem to be the kind of guy people messed with. He carried an air of dignity that demanded respect.

“And what of your specialty?” Sesshomaru asked after a moment. 

The automatic response Kagome had saved came out. “I’m an Physics PhD candidate; I specialize in quantum mechanics.” She waited for one of the banal responses from dates regarding her esoteric work. It wasn’t something people easily connected to, so she was used to only discussing it superficially. 

“Hn. The study of the universe on a scale so small it’s usual laws cease to matter.” _That’s a little reductive, but sure_ , Kagome’s scientist brain started, but she stopped herself long enough to be impressed. “I take it you enjoy peeking behind the curtain.”

Kagome gazed up at him appreciatively, talk of her work hooking her interest like a laser. “I do. There’s more to this world than meets the eye.”

The wind sent his hair around his shoulder like a silver wave as they started across a bridge. The lamps lit the way, and few cars populated the road. The water of the river below gleamed like the dark scales of a serpent. 

“And the chaos that ensues?” Sesshomaru asked, staring also across the black river. 

She stopped them near the center of the bridge, appreciating the moon peeking through the clouds. 

“There’s order in that chaos, we just don’t understand it.” She gazed at the stars she could not see but knew were there. “I heard this quote once, that if you showed caveman science he would think it was magic. If you show a modern man magic he’d call it science. There are mysteries in our universe we simply don’t understand yet, but it doesn’t mean we can’t.” _Doesn’t mean_ I _can’t_.

He turned his palm up and let her hand rest on his, intertwining his fingers in hers on the ledge of the bridge. Kagome surreptitiously glanced around; thankfully, the only people in the area were far off silhouettes. The unabashed intimacy of the action caught her off guard, but even more surprising was how _natural_ it felt. 

His tone was more serious than flirty though, “What fascinates you about these mysteries?”

Kagome suddenly felt naked. Vulnerable. Her heart, the very soul of her work, sat at the back of her tongue ready to spill out. She considered if she should feel more anxious, if she should guard herself more. But Sesshomaru’s hand under hers made her feel anchored. _Safe_. 

“The big questions about the universe: they point out massive holes in what we understand about our very reality. Most people don’t want to look too closely. But…” Kagome’s tongue loosened under Sesshomaru’s hungry gaze. When was the last time someone looked so desperate to hear her talk? “Sometimes I feel like I’ve spent my life missing something...Like I’m missing a limb everyone else has, but no one can see.” 

Sesshomaru didn’t say anything at first, but thumb rubbed over the back of her hand; gripped her hand a little tighter. 

She broke his gaze and looked out on the water unseeingly. She wanted to appreciate how he held her hand so gently, but her scar burned uncomfortably now. She ground her teeth at the sudden shift. The air felt different too.

Kagome forced herself to laugh, “But who doesn’t feel a little different sometimes?” She tried to brush off her word vomit and dial down the intensity. She feared scaring him off.

He shifted his posture to mirror hers, facing the water. Sesshomaru’s tone was light and complimentary, but he still held her hand fast. “Perhaps you should consider instead that you are simply special; on a path that will elevate you past what others are capable of achieving.” 

“You know just what to say, don’t you Sesshomaru?” Her smile wrapped around his name warmly as she chuckled, and it was like some delicate flower bud behind his eyes _bloomed_. The electric pulse in her veins spiked: like every sinew, bone, and tissue were aglow, and he could see them all.

She ran her hand along his arm, stopping at his shoulder and gripping tightly to anchor herself as she learned in. Kagome relished how Sesshomaru’s snowy lashes fell hooded after a split second of bald, wide eyed surprise. He tilted his head down in anticipation just before she pressed her lips to his. 

Despite the way his hand tightened around hers, his lips were pliant, yet frozen. Sensing this, Kagome pulled back an inch. There wasn’t really anyone around to see them, but maybe she was being too forward?

This seemed to unfreeze him; he chased her, kissing her eagerly. Kagome smiled against his lips in victory, and savored the way his arms caged her. When she opened her eyes after the kiss, she found his amber eyes practically melting as he stared into hers. She thought Sesshomaru would lean in for another kiss by how fiercely those glowing eyes devoured her. He let out a deep sigh against her lips and touched his forehead to hers. His eyes slid shut. 

Kissing Sesshomaru felt like kissing a livewire; and she was suddenly consumed by the need to explore every note of this new symphony of sensations. Explosions went off in her brain in compelling ways that Kagome demanded _full_ exploration of.

Kagome wanted to sink her fingers into the hair at the back of his neck and pull him down for another kiss, but a sudden twisting cramp in her side distracted her. 

Her senses were alight with a different _painful_ fire now. She looked around wildly. Her ears rang. 

“Did you hear that?” Kagome asked, unsure she was hearing anything. The hand that had been on his shoulder went absently to her side. 

“Are you in pain?” Sesshomaru asked, suddenly every bit the doctor. 

Her eyes scoured the street; there were a couple other people on the other side of the road crossing the bridge. A few cars. Her gut twisted with dread.

“No,” She lied. “Can we keep going?” She said, already pulling him back onto the sidewalk, setting a quick pace. 

Sesshomaru kept up easily, and didn’t ask any more questions. She felt his concerned gaze on the back of her head. She gripped his hand tightly, not beginning to slow down until the static in her head started to fade.

Once they were a few blocks away from the bridge, Kagome allowed herself a little embarrassment. Sesshomaru had been silent the entire walk, and now as they paused at an empty intersection, he seemed on high alert. 

“Sorry about that, I’m just afraid of heights.” Was the lie she’d thought of during their flight.

“Hn.” Sesshomaru’s gaze was so intense, picking her apart and carefully examining each piece. As if she were laid bare on a surgical table. 

_Shit_. She thought, trying to find a way to patch this up. “It wasn’t you, I swear. I just looked down and got dizzy.” He looked unmoved. “Can we rewind a bit?”

She pressed herself into his side, casting his arm over her shoulder. After a second, he started walking again and gripped her shoulder; she sighed in relief. Her body melded to his side, tension leaking away.

“Tell me something.” Kagome asked suddenly, desperate to right the ship.

“What would you like to hear?” Sesshomaru replied, an easy-going tone back. 

“Something about yourself. Something I don’t know.” Kagome shrugged. “I don’t know much about you so it could be anything really. Do you have any family?”

“None that I am close to.”

“Oh.” She pursed her lips. “Estranged?”

“Yes.” They passed under a street sign which signaled entrance into the university district. It appeared they had stopped looking for a bar. “With the exception of my father. He passed away when I was young.”

Kagome put her hand on Sesshomaru’s hip, letting her arm rest across his back. “I’m sorry to hear that. My dad died when I was little too.” She was glad to have that bit of kinship with him. When he didn’t respond, she pressed forward. “What do you do for fun?”

Sesshomaru thought for a moment. “Most of my spare time goes into my research.”

Kagome shrugged. “I can relate to that. But do you have any hobbies? Do you watch TV or movies?”

Sesshomaru smirked a little under the glow of the streetlamp. “On rare occasion...this one likes to spar. I have several traditional swords.”

She giggled, trying to picture this dignified, regal man sword fighting in his backyard. It seemed so out of place; yet, she could hardly tease him for it. “That’s cool! I dabble with weapons myself.” 

He looked down at her, lifting a quizzical brow. “Do you?”

She nodded. “Yep. So, I’d like to see those swords sometime. Maybe we could spar.” She cast the net.

“It would be my pleasure to show you, Kagome.” Sesshomaru said, catching on quickly. She rested her head against his shoulder, burying her nose in his hair. She commended her resistance to inhaling his scent.

 _Right now?_ She pondered whether it would be too soon to go back to his place. They rounded a familiar corner at the edge of the university’s campus, and the sight of red and blue lights caught her eye. 

“Huh. That’s my school.” She murmured. She sped up a little as they approached a barricaded throughway with an officer standing guard. 

“This street is closed, Miss. Please find a detour.” The gruff officer said as Kagome approached. Sesshomaru hung back.

“I’m a student, why is everything blocked off?” She asked, trying to see into the darkness behind the officer. She couldn’t see the physics building, but they weren’t too far; she passed by this intersection many times. 

“Do you need an escort to the dorms? The dorms are on lockdown.” 

She shook her head, “No; did something happen?”

The officer shook his head, “We’re responding to a missing student report. Our investigation is currently underway.”

“Is it like those other missing persons cases?” She asked.

“I can’t disclose any information at this time. Now please, move along and get home safe.” 

Sesshomaru came up behind her, “Thank you, Officer.” He said, taking her hand and leading her away from the flashing lights. “Will you allow me to see you home, Kagome? You do not look well.”

Did she look sick? She couldn’t tell, but she supposed if the doctor said so. She nodded numbly as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders again. They walked to the train station and she tried to not think about the forensics team she’d seen behind the officer’s back. The white numbered labels indicating evidence in the street. It had been too dark to see what was marked. 

Her nerves were frayed by the time they alighted the train and made their way toward the Higurashi shrine. Sesshomaru led her as she swam in her own head. She was comforted by the weight of his arm around her, and the silence didn’t feel awkward. 

“I’m sorry, that was kind of a buzzkill.” She said as they approached her street. “Thank you for walking me home.” It was around midnight, usually an early night for her. But she felt strangely exhausted. 

“Of course.” Sesshomaru replied, releasing her so she could step out of his grasp and face him. His face was etched with worry. “If you ever find yourself alone at night… please reach out to me. No matter the time.”

She blushed and scoffed, “You don’t know what you’re asking; my hours are crazy.” 

He smirked, “As are mine. I would sleep more easily knowing a young woman such as you will not be roaming the streets by yourself.”

“You make me sound like a feral cat.” She laughed, tension loosening. She regarded the soft look in his eye and the light smile tugging at his lips. “Thank you for a wonderful night, Sesshomaru. I’d like to see you again soon, buy you that drink.” 

He took her hand, and like a Victorian gentleman, kissed it. “Unacceptable. But I will grapple with your stubbornness if it means I get to see you again.”

Heated by such a delicate gesture, Kagome wrapped her arms around Sesshomaru’s neck. She pressed her hips against his boldly, secure in their private corner of the street. “If you want to see me again you’re gonna have to get used to it, buddy.”

He secured her waist with his arms, “It is a battle I am almost positive I will lose.” He grinned down at her. “I am a selfish man. I do not like to lose.”

“Neither do I.” Kagome smirked, and pulled his neck down to her waiting lips. Almost as soon as his eager lips melted against hers, she regretted being just outside her home. He pressed her to his chest, and she relished feeling Sesshomaru react so viscerally under her touch. She sensed the stirring of a beast underneath the composed, gentlemanly exterior, and was titillated. 

She released first, stepping back and observing him; she held on to his hand between them. “Have a good night, Sesshomaru.” After a second, she squeezed his hand tighter, an edge entering her voice. “Text me when you get home safely. I’m serious.” She added when he smiled incredulously. 

He looked immensely satisfied by her concern, “As you command, Higurashi Kagome.” 

She released his hand and started up the stairs, she turned to look down at him and gave him a quick salute, “You have your orders, Doctor.” She wondered if this reparte turned him on like it did her. 

Kagome winked and left the blinking doctor at the foot of the stairs, laughing quietly to herself at his eyes blown wide. Once she was at the top of the stairs, she turned back to see if she could spot him walking to the train station.

She was surprised to find him still watching from the bottom of the stairs. She blew him a kiss she was sure he wouldn’t even be able to see in the dark, and closed the gates to the shrine. Kagome couldn’t fight the smile tugging at her lips as she retreated to the dark house. Heated blood thundered in Kagome’s head so loudly that for once, the wailing siren call of the wellhouse fell on deaf ears. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hope everyone is staying safe out there! Please drop a comment let us know what you think :)

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Courtesy Call by Tally Mark (we did not write that work)  
> All Inuyasha characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi
> 
> Authors can be found on tumblr as:  
> https://gaykagome.tumblr.com/  
> https://archerdiana.tumblr.com/


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